I hadn’t heard of Saal Digital or their printing services before and only came across them by chance when scrolling through Instagram and seeing other photographers mentioning them.
I looked into their services and noticed their high-end photo book, which I thought would be great to use as a physical, professional portfolio to show off some of my own favourite photos.
Their photo books come in a range of sizes, starting from 15” x 15” all the way up to a generous 42” x 28”, an almost poster-like book size to store all of your favourite memories in large prints.
I ordered the 21” x 21” size from Saal’s professional line, which included an acrylic personalised front cover, leather bindings and extra thick pages. If I was going to show off my photos then I wanted them to look the best I could when in printed form. This size photo book includes 30 pages and so off I went to select my top favourite photos from my personal collection and started collaging them in the order I wanted.
Saal digital lets you design your print materials in three different ways: pdf upload via a file template, Saal’s free desktop editing software, or their free mobile app. I went for the desktop software as I wanted to make the most out of their custom design software. Although it was a brand new editing program to me, it’s really simple to use and has lots and lots of ready to go layouts so that you can have multiple images or just one image on each page, with a simple drag and drop basis. There are also plenty of cropping, text and arrangement functions to make it as personal as you wish. It may sound like a hassle to download extra software, but to get the most out of it and to ensure that your prints come out ‘picture perfect’ I highly recommend doing the same.
What I found really useful were the production and delivery times published on the website. Instead of just giving you an average delivery time frame, you can see a breakdown for their different ranges which shows a production time (ie how long it takes to print and bind) and then a delivery time frame. For my photobook from the professional line is stated 3-4 working days for production and then 3-4 working days for delivery, although I received mine within 7 days which included a weekend, so really only 5 working days, quicker than their estimate!
Upon delivery, I opened it to find it beautifully packed. Safe and secure but it also came in a cushioned bag which I thought was a nice touch. My photobook was even better than I could have imagined, and I was really impressed with the high-quality finish of the book, especially how thick the pages are along with the thickness of the acrylic cover – pretty cool looking and very professional to show off to others!
Saal digital are often running discount codes on their photobooks and other printable items, so if you’re interested in getting some of your photos printed, then I highly suggest doing so with these guys as I am really happy with the way mine turned out and the whole order and design process.
